Sherlock: Quick Review

Wow a modern update of a classic character that actually works!! Should I watch it. Depends on what you think about Stephen Moffat, Dr Who's best writer by far. The two offspring and The Cook thought it was the best thing they have seen all year. Quite frankly I agree, shame the actor that played Sherlock turned down the chance to play Dr Who... he would have been so much better.






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Vin Diesel linked with Terminator 5?

Fast & Furious 5 arrives in cinemas in the UK this weekend, ahead of its roll-out in the States this week, and that means that director Justin Lin has been doing promotional duties on the movie. And inevitably, one of the questions he's been asked is about his possible involvement in Terminator 5.

Lin has been widely linked with taking on the franchise, and conversations have taken place about him doing so. And when pressed on the matter by Moviehole, Lin also hinted that there might be room for Vin Diesel in his potential Terminator movie.

Lin has already nattered to Arnold Schwarzenegger about the project, but when asked about Diesel, he said, "Vin's been a really great partner on this franchise. We've talked about the [Terminator] mythology ... he's a great guy and a great actor. I really like working with him, so anything I do I usually talk to him about."

When pressed particularly about whether we could expect Vin Diesel to pop up in Terminator 5, Lin simply added "you never know".

That doesn't say a lot, granted, but it does plant the seed in our mind of a Vin Diesel vs Arnold Schwarzenegger showdown. We do wonder if that's the kind of thing best suited to an Expendables sequel, rather than a Terminator film, though...

Johnny English Reborn

Oh dear............. Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, Rosamund Pike, Daniel Kaluuya.

Atkinson returns to the role of the improbable secret agent who doesn’t know fear or danger in the comedy spy-thriller. In his latest adventure, the most unlikely intelligence officer in Her Majesty’s Secret Service must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos.

Peter Jackson confirms Ian Holm will be back as Bilbo in The Hobbit

With Martin Freeman playing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, you'd think there'd be no place for Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Especially since The Hobbit will take place 60 years before The Fellowship of the Ring.)

But it looks like we'll be seeing Holm's old Bilbo again, as Peter Jackson's found a place for him in the prequel.

As Jackson posted on his Facebook page:

One comment that came up from the recent video blog was the Bilbo voice at the end—many of you assumed it was Sir Ian Holm. Whilst Ian will be returning as the older Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, that recording was actually Martin Freeman's voice, taken from a script read through we recorded when the cast first arrived. I have to admit, I wasn't sure who it was when I first heard it, either.

Alien Prequel 'Prometheus' Will Have Aliens

........in some form anyway.

From 'Alien Prequel News':


"Though security on the set is very tight with the good weather, dock doors have been open and cast and crew have been enjoying lunch outdoors.
I can confirm seeing 3 aliens having lunch. Not the whole costume but blueish costumes and the unmistakable heads hanging around their shoulders"


"The alien heads were the same shape but no markings, only a plane bronze colour. As for the suits black boots and shoulder pads the rest was a Chelsea blue body suit could be for SFX, all the sets around the back of the bond stage have huge green chromokey maybe that's a clue.
I have witnessed foam cut outs of unmistakable aliens all cut in half lengh ways so they could be in the floor walls etc and very much from the original film."

If you are a Alien fan this is a great site to keep up to date with the latest news.

Elizabeth Sladen RIP

Elizabeth Sladen aka Sarah Jane Smith, probably The Doctors best companion, has passed away at 63 from cancer.


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Shatner: The Review

William Shatner. You'll either know him from Trek, Boston Legal, his numerous z grade flicks post Trek our his outrageous 'musical' endeavors. We started with a small, intimate Q&A in the Wintergarden for about 20 min with Shat, his lovely wife and with Mike Hosking guiding proceedings. The audience had a chance to ask a dozen or so questions with yours truly getting to ask the last one, without completely making a dick of myself.
Then it was upstairs, a small break and onto the show proper.
Now, to be perfectly clear, what ever you may think of Mike Hosking personally he is a damn good interviewer so why some retards in the audience booed him is beyond me. This is why Aucklanders are regarded as wankers. The boys were on stage for about 3 hours with a 20 minute brake. If you have read any of his books, a lot of the banter would have been familiar but that didn't matter as it was coming from the man direct. Hosking asked the questions and just let him answer without butting in like the talking heads on morning tv would have. If I still have the same speed of whit as The Man when I am 80 I will be more than happy. Finished with a standing ovation. There could have been nothing less.


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Our first official look at the new Wonder Woman IN COSTUME

Sorry but I do still prefer Linda Carter.

Lots has been said about David E. Kelley's new take on DC's pre-eminent superheroine, and little of it has been good. But all of those opinions have been based on little more than casting sheets and illicitly obtained copies of the pilot script. But how we've got our first eyeful of Diana, Princess of Themyscera. And ...

This could be much worse. Sure, the costume is a little too shiny, the colors are a bit too bright and poor Adrienne Palicki is gonna sweat to death in all that latex.

But there are no stars on her underpants, and I'm glad they retained some of the bustier-feel of the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman while making the outfit something that a lady could, conceivably, kick some ass in.

Awesome in-depth graphic explanation of BSG's many timelines

As we continue to salivate over Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome—as well as slowly get over the cancellation of Caprica—it's nice to be able to look at a single image and get the totality of BSG's twisty storytelling, and how everything impacts everything else.

As anyone who followed Battlestar Galactica over the course of its four-season run can attest, the idea that "all of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again" was a recurring theme, underscored and hammered home over and over.

This chart makes that circular logic manifest, tracking the events that transpired as humans, Cylons and hybrids collided and conspired over millennia.

Click to enlarge

Arnold Schwarzenegger teases us about his big comeback role

The ex-governor has been silent since announcing that he'd directed his agents to start looking for acting roles, but that hasn't stopped speculation about what'll be next for the former Biggest Star in the World. The man himself has finally decided to weigh in about the scripts on his desk—and fans of Predator, Terminator and Running Man will want to pay attention.

Every year, Schwarzenegger holds a sports festival called the Arnold Classic, and it kicks off with the also-modestly-named Arnold Seminar, in which he answers questions from attendees. A correspondent from a site called Arnold Fans asked what the star was choosing from for his return to the pop-culture stage.

"Well, first of all it's more [than] 15 films, obvious ones from The Terminator to remakes of Predator and The Running Man and all of those things. Then also a lot of original stuff too. But I am also packaging a Comic Book character right now. I'm going to announce that sometime by the end of March or the beginning of April."

We're not entirely sure what "packaging a comic book character" means—is he going to be playing an established character on the big screen or is he lending his likeness to an actual comic?—but if he's actively weighing returning to the franchises he started, he'd do well to check out our open letter from a while back.

Del Toro may not direct At the Mountains of Madness after all

We've been looking forward for what seems like forever to Guillermo del Toro's big-budget, R-rated, epic adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, with James Cameron producing. Well, now it looks like the project may not get off the ground anytime soon—and del Toro himself may have to move on.

Although a seemingly erroneous report went online earlier today that the movie was going to start shooting in June with Tom Cruise confirmed for the lead role, the story rapidly took a downward turn from there. According to Deadline, Universal Studios, which has been developing the movie with the director, is hesitant to commit $150 million to an R-rated horror film—even with Cruise interested in starring and fans everywhere salivating over the prospect of del Toro finally making his dream project after 12 years of development.

It seems that the movie would have to make the kind of coin that The Lord of the Rings or Inceptionhauled in—we're talking hundreds of millions—in order for the studio to make back its money, which execs see as a difficult prospect with that R rating keeping teenagers out of the theater. Del Toro has said all along that the movie has to have an R rating to be done right.

Meanwhile, with the years going by since his last movie hit screens (Hellboy 2), del Toro is now thinking of bailing on his baby and directing a film called Pacific Rim. The movie is being produced by Legendary Pictures—the people behind The Dark Knight, among others—and is said to be a large-scale alien invasion film written by screenwriter Travis Beacham, with whom del Toro almost worked on previous projects (see our earlier report on this film here).

The betting money right now says that del Toro will direct Pacific Rim, while he and Cameron try to save At the Mountains of Madness by having another studio pick it up for after Pacific Rim is finished. One possibility? Fox, since Cameron has made a few dollars for that company in the past couple of years. Universal, however, reportedly wants to hold onto it and see if they can make it work.

We've been wanting to see del Toro's take on At the Mountains of Madness for so long that this newest development is a bummer, but at the same time, the man needs to get behind a camera again soon. Pacific Rim sounds cool enough, and hopefully he can still make At the Mountains of Madnessthe way he wants to. Ah, Hollywood...

Die Hard 5 Has A Director

Die Hard 5 has been threatening to happen for a while now. And though we’ve been through the usual rounds of false starts, script drafts and unproven rumours, it would seem that 20th Century Fox and Bruce Willis have finally settled on someone to bring the film to the screen. And that someone is Noam Murro.

"Who?" you may be asking... Well, he doesn’t have the longest film CV in the world, with just one feature credit – 2008’s Dennis Quaid/Sarah Jessica Parker comedy Smart People – under his belt and a few TV assignments.

But according to Deadline, what really impressed the studio bods was his work in commercials. He’s crafted award-winning ads, most recently for the Halo games.

As for Willis, he hasn’t locked in a formal deal to return, but as he’s been keen to point out in the past, it’s not like the studio is in any rush to replace him. He’s also talked up his enthusiasm to return to the role of John McClane, the world’s unluckiest police officer.

Skip Woods’ name is on the most recent draft of the script, though Vulture reported that the studio was planning to look for writers to carry out an almost total rewrite.

There has been no official confirmation of this just yet, so for now, so we’re classifying it as a rumour. But it looks like Fox is closer than ever to getting McClane back on the screen.

Rumor of the Day: Olivia Wilde is the new Lara Croft

Someone in Hollywood must have done the math and realized that the videogame series Tomb Raider hasn't produced a big-budget movie since Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, all the way back in 2003. Eight whole years without a Lara Croft movie? It's reboot time!

Evidence is thin on the ground, but rumor has it that Olivia Wilde may be stepping into the role of our favorite female archaeologist.

TheFanCarpet writes:

A source close to the project said "This would be a far darker and more serious Tomb Raider movie, the idea is to get a top director and an intelligent script and make this an empowering character for women as well as a popular one with men. Olivia is just one of the names being suggested for the lead role. She would appear to be ideal."

Photos of Olivia Wilde have surfaced showing her dressed in Lara's signature fingerless gloves and gun holster, but ComicBookMovie says these stills have come from the set of television show House, where she plays the enigmatic Dr. Remy Hadley (known to her boss as "Thirteen"). (See below.)

Still, with her looks and ability to handle herself in a fake fight—she played Quorra in Tron: Legacyand has a role in the upcoming Cowboys & Aliens—Wilde has what it takes to play the athletic Lara.

Besides, it makes economic sense to cast her. Although we don't have the figures on how much Wilde earns per movie, it's clearly less than former Lara Croft, Angelina Jolie ... aka the woman who charged $20 million to appear in Salt.

Chewbacca Coming to Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Another iconic part of Star Wars history is being brought into The Clone Wars, with the introduction of a certain beloved wookie. 

The New York Times has revealed that none other thanChewbacca will make his debut on the series, in a two-parter that will end Season 3. The storyline will find Chewbacca teaming with Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker's padawan. 

Taking part in the creation of these episodes – titled "Padawan Lost" and "Wookiee Hunt" – is Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy and Revenge of the Sith. The Times spoke to Mayhew about how he met with Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni and his collaborators, to discuss the character. 


Says Mayhew, "They had maquettes and drawings. But remember that Chewie has a peculiar walk which is unique to me. The whole body language is there, even the head movements and eye movements especially. When he's mad, the eyes come open and the jaw starts working, and consequently you can't do this unless you've actually got it on tape, to watch it, slow it down and animate it."

In addition, for the first time, Mayhew's own voice will be heard among Chewbacca's famous growls.

In the past, when asked if wookies might be introduced on The Clone Wars, Filoni had been coy – and noted the difficulty when it came to animating fur for the computer animated series. Clearly, that obstacle has been defeated. 


UPDATE: Tarkin will also be introduced soon.

Adrienne Palicki will play Wonder Woman in NBC's reboot series

After an exhaustive search that nobody heard much about, other than the casting sheet that circulated yesterday, David E. Kelley's Wonder Woman TV series has landed its leading lady. And if you were a fan of the stellar Friday Night Lights, you'll be rather pleased with the choice.

Adrienne Palicki, who stole hearts as Dillon High's social magnet in Friday Night Lights—and who probably hopes you've forgotten her role as the pregnant mother who survives an angel fight in the eminently forgettable Legion—has landed the multifaceted role of Diana Prince/Diana Themyscira/Wonder Woman in NBC's pilot.